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                                                                   Exhibit 24(a)

                                POWER OF ATTORNEY
                                -----------------

                  The E.W. Scripps Company, an Ohio corporation, which proposes
to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the provisions of the
Securities Act of 1933, registration statements on Form S-8 with respect to (i)
the Company's Class A Common Shares, $.01 par value, reserved for issuance under
the Company's 1994 Non-Employee Directors' Stock Option Plan, the Company's 1997
Long-Term Incentive Plan, and the 1997 Deferred Compensation and Phantom Stock
Plan for Senior Officers and Selected Executives ("Deferred Compensation Plan")
and (ii) interests to be offered or sold pursuant to the Deferred Compensation
Plan, hereby constitutes and appoints Daniel J. Castellini, M. Denise Kuprionis
and William Appleton, and each of them, as the attorney of the Company, with
full power of substitution and resubstitution, for and in the name, place and
stead of the Company, to sign and file the proposed registration statements and
any and all amendments and exhibits thereto, and any and all applications and
other documents to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
pertaining to such securities or such registration, with full power and
authority to do and perform any and all acts and things whatsoever requisite to
be done in the premises, hereby ratifying and approving the acts of such
attorney or any such substitute.

                  IN WITNESS WHEREOF, The E.W. Scripps Company has caused this
power of attorney to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned in Cincinnati,
Ohio, on May 22, 1997.

                                         THE E.W. SCRIPPS COMPANY

                                         By: /s/ WILLIAM R. BURLEIGH
                                            ------------------------------------
                                            William R. Burleigh, President
                                                 and Chief Executive Officer

                                         And: /s/ M. DENISE KUPRIONIS
                                              ----------------------------------
                                                  M. Denise Kuprionis, Secretary